Affiliate MarketingTrends in 2009

Wade SissonDirector of Marketing

© 2009 PartnerCentric, Inc.

Affiliate Marketing Trends in 2009

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About this report

These trends will help us devise, implement and manage the strategies and tactics that will drive the success of our partners – affiliates and merchants alike - in 2009 and beyond.

If you have questions or comments, please contact Wade Sisson,Director of Marketing, atwsisson @ partnercentric.com.

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The common theme in the trend for marketing in 2009 is to simply care about your customers, listen to them, communicate and be upfront with them. I think these tips are great for every small business owner and entrepreneur!

- Attendee, Affiliate Summit 2009 West

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Social Media is the biggest story

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That's not to say it brings the most results. It doesn't. But withmillions of people flocking to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter,affiliate marketers are determined to find ways to leverage social media to drive traffic and sales.

The Big Three

1. (200 million registered users)

2. (about 150 million registered users)

3. (now the fastest-growing of the three)

Video marketing a rising star

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Video is tied to social media with more than 60% ofInternet users visiting video-sharing sites such as YouTube.

Advertising placed within video content is expected toincrease by more than 70%.

Mobile media also continues to grow

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More than 78 million U.S. Mobile phone users (one in three) have seen or heard ads on their phones in the last three months. That makes the mobile marketing spaceripe for affiliate marketers.

Listen to our podcast, Affiliate Marketing Insider, where we explore mobile trends in affiliate marketing:

http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/affiliate-marketing-insider/2009/mobile-trends-in-affiliate-marketing/

Browser-free surfing brings changes in metrics

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Widgets and embedded desktop applications mean you no longer need a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) to access the Web.

This means page views are no longer going to be the best measure of success. Nielsen no longer considers page impressions a major metric.

New metrics include:- How long are users staying on our site?- Which widgets or applications are our biggest referrers?

Narrow your focus and widen your success

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Web 2.0 and social media make it possible to focus on your niche as never before. This means you are able to:

- target and recruit niche affiliates

- develop niche keywords and phrases for paid and organicsearch campaigns

- create content for niche bloggers and affiliates

- concentrate your ad spend where it will do the most good

- communicate with customers where they live

Create your own community

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Identify the best place to hold a conversation with your constituents – whether it already exists (Facebook?) or will need to be built (Ning?). Then create YOUR community.

1) Start a blog. Jump-start the conversation.

2) Research the places where your desired customers hang out and find a way to engage them there.

3) Examine the competition and monetize your community.AdSense is a blanket solution. We recommend moretargeted efforts – such as related affiliate offers.

Advanced Affiliate Management

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Outsourced affiliate program management firms are on the rise as the task of monitoring and maintaining becomes more complex.

As the number of tools (such as competitor analyzers) andtasks (including social media updates) increases, so does the need for expert program managers.

We've seen this at PartnerCentric. Where once CJ considered OPMs to be competition, the network now sees the advantage of partnering with us to ensure that programs get the daily professional attention that they needto achieve maximum success.

Analyzing the competition

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New tools like Syntryx enable OPMs such as PartnerCentric to gain information about the competitionincluding:- who they have enlisted as affiliate partners- where those affiliates are focused (paid search?)- paid vs. unpaid search strategies- targeted keywords and phrases

Affiliate Taxation

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New York and California were the first states to introducelegislation calling for taxation of affiliates within the states.Other states are now following suit, and our industry is working hard to educate lawmakers about the threats theselaws will have on small business owners and Internet marketers in general.

Listen to our recent podcast which deals with this issue in great detail: http:// www 2.webmasterradio.fm/affiliate-marketing- insider/2009/affiliate-taxation-legislation-in-

california/

Protecting industry interests

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The affiliate marketing industry is dedicated to protecting its interests and those of its merchant andaffiliate partners.

The Performance Marketing Alliance is leading our march on all fronts, including the challenges we're mounting whenever a new state introduces affiliatetax legislation.

For more information about the PMA, of which PartnerCentric is an active contributor, visithttp:// www.performancemarketingalliance.com